Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. said a monitor appointed
by a judge to oversee antitrust compliance in its electronic
books price-fixing case is charging too much money.

“Of all known past Apple matters,” no lawyer has had
a higher rate than Michael Bromwich’s proposed hourly fee of
$1,100, the world’s most valuable technology company said in a
Nov. 27 filing in federal court in Manhattan.

“Mr. Bromwich appears to be simply taking advantage of the
fact that there is no competition here or, in his view, any
ability on the part of Apple, the subject of his authority, to
push back on his demands,” lawyers for Cupertino, California-based Apple said in the filing.

Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department inspector
general, is charging a 15 percent administrative fee on top of
his hourly rate, as well as on the cost of hiring other lawyers
to assist him, according to the filing.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote appointed Bromwich as a
monitor in October following her July ruling that Apple played a
“central” role in a conspiracy to fix prices for electronic
books. Cote barred Apple from entering into anticompetitive
contracts with e-book publishers.

Administrative Fee

Bromwich justified the administrative fee on the grounds
that he’s handling the assignment through his consultancy, the
Bromwich Group, rather than through his law firm, Goodwin
Procter LLP, according to Apple’s filing.

Bromwich’s invoice for his first two weeks of work was
$138,432, the equivalent of 75 percent of a federal judge’s
annual salary, Apple said in its filing, which described the
administrative surcharge as “unprecedented in Apple’s
experience.”

Melissa Schwartz, a vice president of the Bromwich Group,
said yesterday Bromwich was out of the country and unavailable
for comment. She declined to comment on Apple’s claim.

Apple also objected in its filing to proposals by Cote to
allow Bromwich to interview company personnel without counsel
present and to report to her without Apple lawyers present.

Those conditions “impermissibly expand the scope of the
monitorship,” according to Apple’s filing.

The U.S. sued Apple and five book publishers in April 2012.
After a trial that began in June, Cote ruled that Apple violated
antitrust laws in its contracts with five of the six biggest
book publishers. Apple is appealing.

The case is U.S. v. Apple Inc., 12-cv-02826, U.S. District
Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).